4, your troops are too divided due to the constant rebels. You can always hit them later, colonies cost nothing in a peace deal. If you lose the war you could lose all of your Indian progress.
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Whilst I'd go for 4, you do still need it for pseudo master of India. I'll go 2, because most people have guessed 3 already, and you want to play around with these new mechanics more
That's interesting. I'll test it if I get a chance.
Yeah, this mechanic is untested. And not just by players..
It is sometimes worth as the only otion on large nations with lots of trade power. Other times you just want to storm in, muskets blazing, and demand every high trade power province in the vicinity.
A straightforward option! However, not without its setbacks, sicne annexing more states before I finished my current cores might be trouble. Still, it might be better in the long run.
I was never allied to them. Castile has started the weird oscillating relations thing until it just straight out rivaled me.
I don't know about losing all of my Indian progress, but I was overextended, war exhausted and yeah, I had troops everywhere. However, that likely won't change, as I'll always need 2-3 distant military outposts so transporting troops there won't take months in case of rebellion or war.
Sir! Are you calling me a good-for-nothing warmonger?
Because if so, thank you!
Taking the dark horse option? That could work. Anyway, it is possible they'll patch the achievement, because right now it has been made more of a pain than something to be proud of.
I'm interested in that nobody guessed 1. I guess you might have sensed that my interest in Protectorates is waning.
While news indicate that Paradox is working on a DLC that would be relevant for East India, I doubt it will come out before I'm either very far or nearly done with the game. Which I guess means that someone reading this sometime into the future (Hello future person, how are the hover cars coming along?) will wonder why the heck I'm not using India properly.
11. November 1664 - 11. November 1674
I chose option 2: Make a speedy protectorate of Madurai while disregarding Brunei. I needed to limit Portugal’s Indian expansion, but at the same time, I could not afford to increase overextension further by demanding colonies from Castile or Portugal.
This, as Serbia showed me not too long ago, would propel me into joining the Madurai on the defensive side.. Only I forgot another nasty side effect of doing things this way that made me regret my choice:
Since this was technically a defensive war, the moment I become war leader, the AI automatically calls in my ally, Poland, who is a land power in EUROPE. They understandable REFUSE BECAUSE IT IS A STUPID WAR THEY CANNOT BLOODY HELP WITH. The good news is that our alliance was only broken for the next 600 years.
Sorry Poland. I don't decide how I feel about you. The game does. And it has decided that I HATE YOU FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER
It makes no sense! Stop telling me how I feel about other AI nations! In addition, stop calling in my allies automatically when I'm attacked, if it's going to break the game that badly.
But okay, I now had a war to fight with Portugal to defend my new useless protectorate. Let's get to it.
War goal: Enforce a white peace. End it with a quick and clean victory.
This was not quite enough warscore to demand a white peace, and if you look at the above screenshot, you'll notice that I am involved in two wars:
- One with Portugal and it's colonial henchmen.
- Another one with Oudh attacking for a province belonging to Marathas
The second war I decided to use to my advantage: I would move my East Indian troops to Oudh gain a complete victory and demand that they become a protectorate of mine.
To celebrate our new advances in India against Portugal and Oudh, rations for soldiers now included real bread instead of sawdust cake.
Haha, You lucky bastards are being spoiled rotten. The Seamen have to eat biscuits, fruits and these tiny black fish eggs and drink musky beer.
Meanwhile, two simultaneous rebellions happened in Arabia, delaying my missionaries.. Muscat actually took so long to walk to through Najd that the province fell to the siege.
Now, in order to get relations up with Madurai in time, I had allied them, forgetting that snapping an alliance gave -1 stability. Huge bummer, but I had to in order to make it in time and I simply had to deal with that by breaking the alliance to avoid wasting diplomatic points. However, for some reason, breaking Naples' alliance with Madurai also meant that they failed our call to war. What war and how the &#%¤&¤ that makes any bloody sense, I'll leave to you, but I lost two stability points instead of one for reasons I can't phantom.
Look, I don't usually turn that nasty at this game but.. the entire protectorate system is a broken piece of untransparant garbage that has just ruined two of my alliances - permanently. Completely random and nonsensical stuff like above just keeps popping up using the system, and it almost made me lose all my desire to play the rest of the session then and there. If this wasn't Ironman, I would consider this entirely justifiable ground to just redo the session from the beginning. Man, not only England from before but also Poland - an ally I've had since the beginning of the game, ruined for the entire campaign - because of a buggy, half-baked feature, that the developers should *never* have included.
The session isn't ruined, but the game mechanics are essentially forcing me to live without allies, because who knows when the next silly protectorate war will happen and all of my alliances will break forever? I'll run out of nations to ally at some point. I know 1.5 is aiming to fix this and I hope they reduce the relations hit I have with Poland and England right now, because I'm pretty sad I can't resume alliances with them at this point, because of how the AI assumed that I feel about them, and not the other way around.
But to make the best of it, at least Gioachino II decided to leave more legacy than his eastward expansion behind.
* May be misleading or a complete fabrication.
Oh right, the wars.
In the fall of 1665, a Portuguese Light Ship navy blindsided my small trade fleet guarding the Venetian node after sneaking into the Mediterranean. After hunting them around the Mediterranean Sea for half a year, I finally get my revenge on them as I split my navy up and caught some of their light ships.
I also decimated their little landing party.
In India, Oudh decided to walk past my northward advancing army. Cue me turning back and walking all the way back across India to attack them and head north again.
Afterwards, it was simply a question of carpet sieging Oudh and waiting for Portugal to get tired of Madurai.
In September 1666, Portugal agreed to a white peace. India, Besides the Maldives, was safe from Iberian ambitions.
When I had finally completely defeated Oudh, and it came to negotiating a peace, I got some bad news. Since Madurai was the one who had occupied the capital, I could not negotiate them becoming a protectorate, so I had to take this deal in July 1667.
During and after the wars, Muscat rebelled again while I was busy moving to the other half of the southern Arabian Peninsula. Then Mamluks rebels arose in Alexandria. Then a rebellion in Friuli. Then in Morea. Then in Muscat again. Then in Qasr Ibrim (Southern Egypt). Then Aswan and Suakin, then Asir... I think you're getting the point. There was a rebellion about once every three months. At times, I also had to come to the aid of Marathas, which was suffering from its own national revolts.
Well, at least those particular rebels don't care about our wine! At least not until the Neapolitan Inquisition finishes teaching them to enjoy the blood of Orthodox Christ.
At this point, I decided to cool the hell down, until the main factors inciting these rebellions were dealt with. At the very least, I would let all cores finish, before continuing expansion. Additionally, I would waste no more admin points, unless I absolutely had to before getting to administrative level 22.
On the bright side, France soon left the coalition against Naples, leaving it without a hate club for the first time in many years. I guess turning my focus towards the east helped cool things a bit down first. Worry not; it is temporary.
I spent some amounts of time just sitting back, building up infrastructure (trade and military to save admin points), optimizing trade and murdering thousands upon thousands of rebels. I also got to become world leading trade in Cotton.
Take that, southern North America!
Hell, the harvests were amazing. Never had the country produced as much kha.. err, grain. Yes, amazing grain.
I got this event repeated a little less than a year later.
However, as the wheel of fortune giveth, it also taketh away. Mostly the latter.
And the comitee for the preservation of the holy codpiece of Jesus Christ was born.
I had also started coring provinces from Yemen once they finally became Orthodox.
Then it dawned on me in April 1669: Why was I wasting administrative points on that? There was a simpler way to get cores on those provinces without spending ~100 administrative points!
War. The answer is always war.
Wargoal: Vassalize Yemen
Looking at the morale of those troops and informing you that Tripoli bailed on its ally, I'll leave you to imagine how the war went.
Meanwhile, a group of generals - Who normally receive daily rations with two loafs of bread - complained about unfair prioritization. Rubbish.
Sadly, during the war with Yemen, King Gioachino II died a mysterious death, seemingly having choked on old, moldy bread in his command tent. In another, completely unrelated event, army rations were re-organized.
King Ferrante II took the reins from his older brother. Neither of two brother's royal jewels had given to either little sapphires or rubies, and so there were no heir apparent. On the bright side, King Gioachino II had soundly removed all infamy related with his low birth, and Legitimacy was now at 100.
(Weirdly enough, I lost 2 stability. Is my memory wrong or isn't it supposed to be 1 stability? Was this one for Hungary because of the personal union, I wonder?)
Lacking any decent choices in new mission, Ferrante II picked one to conquer Savoie (the province, not the entire nation). First came finishing Yemen, though.
In February the core on Zeta finishes, which makes everything a bit easier.
Meanwhile, Portugal declared war on Sind (an important center of trade in the Indus node, the western and lesser of the three Indian nodes) and I could do nothing about it. Suppose I'll just have to put it on my to-do list for future wars - thing is that I can't actually use right now anyway, since the extra merchant from the expansion idea set will be used for the Bengal node.
YOU WILL LIVE TO REGRET THIS (if you live for another 30 or so years when I am in a position to deal with it)
In May 1670 the war with Yemen finished, and I soon en-act my plan to cancel coring of the former.. Yemenese? Yemenite? Yeah, Yemenite. Provinces and instead sell them back to my new vassal.
Yeah I'm being a bit of a cheap bastard, but I work with what I have, when the game won't let me have admin points.
Speaking of being a cheap bastard, the increased production efficiency in Edirne (again!) is quickly put to work for the state - can't trust those peasants to have too many things. They’ll get strange ideas.
In December 1670, Karaman was annexed. I soon sent missionaries to convert the provinces. Over the next couple of years, I also decide to sweep the region for minor nations, Mentese and mighty Aq Qoyunlu, that are Ottoman cores and then sell them back. Here's Anatolia near the end of the session.
While this was happening, Neapolitan diplomats were struggling in faraway Ragusa. They were told to go back home and think about what they've done for a week and then return, because the node was, what, 500 kilometers from bloody Venice?
Ladies and gentlemen: The pride of the Naples' bourgeois society.
At least our seamen were still wiggling all around the seas in search of hardened hulls to penetrate. Sometimes they might have to swarm the enemy and wear its defenses down, but the special honor is always bestowed upon he, who finally delivers the killing blow into the core. There is only room for one hero at a time, after all.
In India, my protectorates had picked up my slack for not being able to finish Oudh and more:
On more negative news, a new state suddenly popped up in the parts of Africa encapsulated by myself and Ethiopia, which I had hoped that I could reserve for my own colonists.
They're too primitive to be turned into vassals, but I might make it a protectorate in the hope that it advances enough. On the bright side, the provinces are not that rich nor do they produce very important goods anyway.
As you can maybe feel from the time passing, I was still holding back. This was because I waiting for an heir and to reach administrative tech 22, so that I could get expansion ideas.
In September 1673, Ethiopia was annexed, which gave my missionaries something to do, as rebels had managed to convert half the country.
At least our religious nutjobbery impressed everyone else.
Desperately hoping for a new heir, and also that England would soon be able to ally again, I performed a royal marriage with Great Britain, pushing Naples' opinion to -55. This also had the amusing side effect of putting the House of Lancaster as the preferred future dynasty, if Ferrante II should fail to spread his little sailors successfully to some homely dock.
I also got a free CB on Sardinia. However, this is going to sound depressing, I had better things to do that to fight France for a Catalan province. Unless they come knocking, I probably won't use the CB anytime soon.
By the end of the session, I had been waiting almost five years for a heir to pop. That's 60 dice rolls of a 5-sided die and none of them had turned out BABY, despite the chances of that being below 1%. In other words, unless my understanding of how chance of new heir works is wrong, there's something else than statistics at work here (20% for 60 months is 0,8^60 * 100 = 0,15% of not having a baby). So while Ferrante II is getting deep into middle age himself, it seems that he might not father a child before croaking. Therefore, I've decided that was quite enough dilly-dallying for now. My war exhaustion is gone, I have no more overextension or legitimacy issues and I've built up a decent manpower reserve for once. It's time to let the (maybe last) Borghese release the Pigeons of war and make a mockery of world peace. These are on the immediate to-do list:
- Return more cores to the Ottomans from Serbia (no admin cost!).
- Annex the province of Savoie and prepare Savoy itself for vassalization. Time time to unite the Italian people's.. Under a soon-to-be English dynasty?
- Annex Görz. Hungary's integration might not be done before 1700 rears its head, but better stay ahead.
- Push Castile and Portugal out of the Indian region and Spain out of Somalia, before they can too much damage. (IE bring their trade navy along)
On a bit more long term:
- Adal. This OPM is making for fugly borders and I regret not annexing them and selling them Ethiopia before I annexed them.
- Funj, if they can get to westernize, I can vassalize them properly.
- Najd and Iraq to expand my Middle Eastern holdings, which will be directly connected with Naples.
- Mysore for Madurai? I don't even really know. I kind of want them to westernize and then vassalize them, since they're just about small enough for that if they get western tech.
Lastly, The unfortunately robotic AI constructed AI history of Gioachino II, King of Naples from 1631 to 1669. I also tried to do a quick map of the realm at the end of his reign (So Yemen isn't a vassal yet etc.). I refuse to draw protectorates accurately, as long as they are as useless as they are now. I may redo it if a future development fleshes them out, for now you get colored circles.
I suggest you right click --> open image if you actually want to read it.
Noticed something about the map: Hungary is outdated. It has more provinces than it appears. Also, I forgot to paint the seas before I resized the image - which meant that I would have to redo it since the resizing messed up editing the image something fierce. I hope you can make it out.
News of the world
- Castile has colonized Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands! ... This turned out surprisingly well for Japan, in a way.
- France is finally completely re-united and has founded an East Indian Trade Company, even though it does not have any provinces in the area as far as I can tell.
- The OPM minor Münster in the HRE and was hit by no less than 3 religious wars, one of which consisted of the Papal states defending them against other Catholics, including Austria! In the end, Trier ran with the price and forced them to be catholic.
- Meanwhile Magdeburg, which is a still an OPM, managed to force what little remains of Bremen to turn Protestant. The line is being drawn between the two religious camps in the HRE. While the protestants are in control of the imperial seat for now, Bohemia and Bavaria are each another’s throat.
- Bohemia is attack Bavaria along with half of Europe on a reconquest war. It's actually holding up quite well. For now.
- Impressively, Shawnee in North America actually manages to finish westernization. They're moderately large, albeit still about 12 tech levels behind in every category.
- Ming has gotten over its lost mandate of heaven and kicked the Mongol Khanate and Manchu's asses.
- Uzbek, a huge Nomad state, was made a protectorate of Muscovy after an "Overseas expansion". Whenever the great steppes really count as seas, I'll leave up to you.
Arbitrary Quiz
Results
DensleyBlair and Frogdude: +3 each. I could not stand more overextension, so colonial war was out and Brunei could be damned, I can invade them after I pick the important centers of trade.
New question
Let's go for the heir again. Will I have one at all by the end of the next session? A Borghese? Lancaster? Something Third? Also, Below Average (0-7 skill points), Average (7-11) or Great-Compared-To-Neapolitan-Standards (11+)? Note that Ferrante is 47 by the end of this session.
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You will get an heir in the middle level. Also sorry things with the protectorates and all that mangled your game up.
More points! Hooray!
I can't see the Borghese vacating the throne any time soon, so I'll just go for an average Borghese.
In any case, a very enjoyable update, as ever. Perhaps with the next map you could fill in protectorates in a different odour as opposed to circling them? It's not imperative, but would make things a bit clearer in my humble opinion.
I can't see the Borghese vacating the throne any time soon, so I'll just go for an average Borghese.
In any case, a very enjoyable update, as ever. Perhaps with the next map you could fill in protectorates in a different odour as opposed to circling them? It's not imperative, but would make things a bit clearer in my humble opinion.
And thus i was caught up with the Neapolitan epic, great story, love the illustrations. I'm going to guess that kingy is gonna get funky by the end of the next update and make a nice little MALE heir who ranks in at 10 superduper skill points. Great AAR, keep it up! :happy:
Ferrante Borghese will remain King, and one without an Heir of any kind, by the end of your next session.
Never seen Funj before. Is it new this patch, or have I just never fulfilled the conditions for it to emerge?
Never seen Funj before. Is it new this patch, or have I just never fulfilled the conditions for it to emerge?
Wow, 20k+ views! Cheers, guys.
I think the protectorates really came out of nowhere :-/. They seem like such a half-assed mechanic, but I think I've done my fair share of complaining about them for now.
But does Naples really have the ability to produce such a monarch? A best it seems capable of avoiding the most incompetent of monarchs.
Well, let's see how it goes. Let's just hope that someone has it in him to perform his royal bedchamber duty.
Maybe I will. The sad thing is that I feel that protectorates matter so little that they're not really worth painting on the map. That and there's a very good screenshot of their appearance (Madurai, Orissa, Marathas and Shan) in the screenshot a little above the map. At best I'll make it really pretty for the last intermission.
Thanks. I do think our dear Gioachino II's at least an 8 or 9 on the scale.
Thanks. Ferrante II sure kicked up the warfare a notch in this chapter, I'll promise you that.
It's an event if none of the provinces are colonized, it seems. I must go further to find new land for my single colonist, I guess.
11. November 1674 - 1. January 1688 part 1/2
The first action of this session was finally making it to diplomatic tech 22, picking expansion ideas and sending Naples' new colonist to our first colony: The uninhibited island of Diego Garcia.
Today used by the American military. Don't stare too long at the military installations or you will soon receive a rather rude visit from the NSA.
Who could possibly object to living their entire life subsiding on fish, crabs, rats and coconuts?
All right, after dealing with that and having lost patience with the lack of an heir, I set my armies up for the first of many planned conquests before Ferrante II croaked from old age:
First: A war against Serbia to return Ottoman cores.
Second: A war against Savoy to bring them down to size
Third/fourth: A repeat of the former wars to vassalize Savoy and return any remaining cores.
Fifth: A war against Austria to conquer Görz
It all began it with by declaring war on the rather bewildered Trier in June 1675.
Not only would that allow me to get to Savoy and Serbia at the same time, it would also allow me to make Bavaria take back the third HRE reform and grant me a truce for my next war with Austria.
Wargoals
Primary:
- Demand Savoie and whatever else it takes to bring the cost of vassalizing Savoy below 100+%
- Return as many cores
Secondary:
- Make Bavaria relinquish a HRE reform.
Tertiary:
- Shake the cash tree and see what comes out
Surprisingly, Bavaria opted not to join.
I had aligned 40k troops in Dalmatia, 40k in Eastern Greece and 29k in the Ottoman area. It was not optimized for dealing with both Serbia and Savoy at the same time, but I would make do. The plan was this: Western 40k moves to Savoy, defeats its armies and carpet sieges it, while holding Bavaria at bay in the mountains. Eastern 40k+29k defeats Serbia and lays carpet siege to all of it. Bavaria would be dealt with, once either Serbia or Savoy surrendered.
Serbia itself proved a disappointment, and with one single battle it feel like a stack of cards and I could fan my troops out to carpet siege all of their land. Meanwhile, I crashed through the minor of Savoys sieges and we then continued to eye one another, while we sieged each another's mountain provinces. Meanwhile Hungary was keeping Poland admirably at bay.
And... Then I waited.
In September 1676, when a counterattack finally came from the nation I declared war upon in the first place, I was caught just two in-game days from intervening. Then a rather complicated series of moves takes place, which I'll explain below the image.
1: Trier's forces defeated my smaller forces (first battle of Vaud, lower left), then escaped to Bern.
2: Meanwhile I moved to Vaud, but Trier was gone. However in a series of moves not depicted in detail, I managed to make Savoy (darker red) attack Savoie, then reinforce it, defeating their army. (Battle of Savoie)
3: I pursued Savoy's forces into Vaud and white the morally depleted forces of Savoy (2nd battle of Vaud, upper right.)
Now Savoy were wiped out, but I still needed to deal with Trier. My chance came when I managed to make them attack a small split-off stack of mine in the mountains, where I came with reinforcements afterwards:
That battle was rather closer than I would like though, I almost lost all morale before making it there to reinforce it, and losses were equal.
And then joyous news arrived. It had turned out that all Ferrante II's own little musket needed, in order to face up to the task of performing its royal duties, was some good old-fashioned bloodshed! A son at the springy age of 50!
Woo, he is just about average (and yet still the 3rd best stat wise, as far as I can tell). Let us just hope he won't share the fate of the last 'Carlo' of house Borghese.
Soon after the birth of Carlo, Savoy was finally completely conquered, and gave into this peace in August 1677.
I did not intend to core those provinces, but rather hand them back once I vassalized Savoy in the next war.
That very same month, the last province of Serbia fell, and I managed to create an Ottoman enclave in the middle of Anatolia, hoping that some rebels would later make it break free.
The war with Trier itself was ended with a measly demand for 100 ducats.
Of course, Bavaria demanded "their" province back, but seeing as how they didn't even answer the call to defend their own imperial member, I saw little reason to take them seriously.
Then, I gleefully spent all my new money on finishing the production building lines in Rome, Venice and Liguria. I also got an event to bump up Patriarch authority to 50%, for the cheap price of them owning some of the richest land in the kingdom. One needs a vacation island or two to get some R&R after converting heathens after all.
When asked about why they insist on bringing so many choir boys, they answer that they are merely "Empowering the faith through integration of Catholic doctrine.”
During 1678, I forcefully annexed Adal. They were blocking the crossover between Ethiopia and were also quite an eyesore. To celebrate the victory, a bitchin' new Palace was built. You know, just to have a place a few dozen kilometers outside the city to retreat to, when life inside the Royal Palace of Naples got a bit too stressful.
I'll spare you the prolonged and glorious battles.
Seriously. Look that place up. The Palace of Caserta was a rival to Château de Versailles in the field of "Mad Decadence". It was also used in the first two terrible prequels to Star Wars.
Interestingly, Funj is a hotbed of constant rebellion.
Even after this victory, the admiralty of Naples had become concerned that Ferrante II would let the higher levels of the Neapolitan Navy's seamen pool be contaminated by lowborn genes. Ferrante II quickly dismissed such nonsense.
But he did prove somewhat lenient toward the city dwellers, as they complained that the laws requiring them to donate five standard size haystacks to the Crown to be a little misplaced and, frankly, excessive.
Two should be enough for any man!
France also realized its own Indian Ambitions, and this was not a fight I was quite up yet.
A fight that I however, was up for, was one against Bavaria. Not only had I been cheated out of it before, but pre-emptively striking them now would mean that they, along with all of their common allies, would be unable to defend Savoy once I declared it again. The war began in February 1680.
The wargoal was simple: Make Bavaria take back an imperial reform, before Great Britain or other allies of Bavaria could assist it.
The war plan was simple, with the same old 2x40 armies descending into Bavaria to occupy it long enough for 100% warscore. I began with a mad charge with a half-morale army (in my defense, theirs was no better).
While I laid siege to all of Bavaria, weary of reinforcements, I got myself a master of mint and en-acted this decision.
Unquestionably worth it, since reducing two points worth of inflation costs 75 admin points, I would just have to have any positive inflation for 50 years (and I will have).
In the fall of 1680 the entire Royal English Navy makes it into the Mediterranean, seemingly bent on revenge for the last time, this time they were packing enough firepower to utterly defeat me. Afterwards I made a point of staying away from open conflict with them and staying in port for the duration of the war. Embarrassing as it is, my seamen are much too precious to lose against such an enemy. My inability to defeat them is partially caused my heavy investment in light ships, and the fact that 90 of my ships were in the gulf of Aden/Indian Ocean.
Oh, I also got myself a new merchant and placed him in the Bengal node.
But other than killing 16k Lombardian patriots and another 10k counterattacking Brandenburgians, nothing much happened until this peace in August 1681.
I was almost a bit disappointed. Was this the best the HRE could dish up?
Meanwhile, I started the (slow) annexation of Yemen and sent my new colonist to the southernmost provinces of the Philippines - which would put me in range of the "Spice Islands" and Australia / New Zealand. If I can, I will make New Zealand and Australia into Neapolitan islands, though I am skeptical if Castile, France or Portugal won't try to take it away from me.
This time the natives won't be as welcoming (mostly because they exist), so I sent some troops later.
Then more good news arrived: Someone had figured out that if you trap enough dirty peasants inside a mine until they fill your quota, productivity increases!.
Manpower slowly decreases, however.
But it was soon time to go back on the warpath. Even the cartographers were making "mistakes" to nudge Ferrante II towards more war, before his age caught up with him.
I'm sure there's some contemporary geopolitical joke to be made here, but I'm not sure it would go over too well.
Armies were outfitted with the latest weapons and the biggest guns, and prepared for another war. But it would not be against Serbia.
For far too long had independent Savoy lingered on, reminding Naples that it had failed in its goal to unify the Italian cultures. That the great minestrone of Italian cultures and languages were too much for one nation to handle. That mama wouldn't approve of this Pizza, crowded with too many toppings. That this Neapolitan ragù couldn't possibly handle Savoyard Diot.
Simply put, that Naples was just an oversized piece of ricotta in the cannoli of the world.
Sorry, I lost focus there for a second. I think I'll dine Italian the next chance I get.
Back to the war plans. While the French king died, giving Naples a 4-year grace period, where France could not declare war upon Naples, War was declared on Savoy on 1st October 1682. Time to bring Savoy under the Neapolitan throne and finally take Görz, leaving the integration of Hungary the last remaining link to the Middle East.
Wargoals:
Primary:
- Vassalize Savoy.
- Annex Görz.
Secondary:
- Money.
80.000 Neapolitan and 30.000 Hungarian troops now stood ready to oppose.. Er, that's slightly more opponents than I had predicted.
TO BE CONTINUED.. in the second part coming in like an hour. You didn't expect me not to give you guys more after such a long wait, did ya?
I think the protectorates really came out of nowhere :-/. They seem like such a half-assed mechanic, but I think I've done my fair share of complaining about them for now.
But does Naples really have the ability to produce such a monarch? A best it seems capable of avoiding the most incompetent of monarchs.
Well, let's see how it goes. Let's just hope that someone has it in him to perform his royal bedchamber duty.
More points! Hooray!
I can't see the Borghese vacating the throne any time soon, so I'll just go for an average Borghese.
In any case, a very enjoyable update, as ever. Perhaps with the next map you could fill in protectorates in a different odour as opposed to circling them? It's not imperative, but would make things a bit clearer in my humble opinion.
Maybe I will. The sad thing is that I feel that protectorates matter so little that they're not really worth painting on the map. That and there's a very good screenshot of their appearance (Madurai, Orissa, Marathas and Shan) in the screenshot a little above the map. At best I'll make it really pretty for the last intermission.
Thanks. I do think our dear Gioachino II's at least an 8 or 9 on the scale.
Thanks. Ferrante II sure kicked up the warfare a notch in this chapter, I'll promise you that.
It's an event if none of the provinces are colonized, it seems. I must go further to find new land for my single colonist, I guess.
11. November 1674 - 1. January 1688 part 1/2
The first action of this session was finally making it to diplomatic tech 22, picking expansion ideas and sending Naples' new colonist to our first colony: The uninhibited island of Diego Garcia.
Today used by the American military. Don't stare too long at the military installations or you will soon receive a rather rude visit from the NSA.
Who could possibly object to living their entire life subsiding on fish, crabs, rats and coconuts?
All right, after dealing with that and having lost patience with the lack of an heir, I set my armies up for the first of many planned conquests before Ferrante II croaked from old age:
First: A war against Serbia to return Ottoman cores.
Second: A war against Savoy to bring them down to size
Third/fourth: A repeat of the former wars to vassalize Savoy and return any remaining cores.
Fifth: A war against Austria to conquer Görz
It all began it with by declaring war on the rather bewildered Trier in June 1675.
Not only would that allow me to get to Savoy and Serbia at the same time, it would also allow me to make Bavaria take back the third HRE reform and grant me a truce for my next war with Austria.
Wargoals
Primary:
- Demand Savoie and whatever else it takes to bring the cost of vassalizing Savoy below 100+%
- Return as many cores
Secondary:
- Make Bavaria relinquish a HRE reform.
Tertiary:
- Shake the cash tree and see what comes out
Surprisingly, Bavaria opted not to join.
I had aligned 40k troops in Dalmatia, 40k in Eastern Greece and 29k in the Ottoman area. It was not optimized for dealing with both Serbia and Savoy at the same time, but I would make do. The plan was this: Western 40k moves to Savoy, defeats its armies and carpet sieges it, while holding Bavaria at bay in the mountains. Eastern 40k+29k defeats Serbia and lays carpet siege to all of it. Bavaria would be dealt with, once either Serbia or Savoy surrendered.
Serbia itself proved a disappointment, and with one single battle it feel like a stack of cards and I could fan my troops out to carpet siege all of their land. Meanwhile, I crashed through the minor of Savoys sieges and we then continued to eye one another, while we sieged each another's mountain provinces. Meanwhile Hungary was keeping Poland admirably at bay.
And... Then I waited.
In September 1676, when a counterattack finally came from the nation I declared war upon in the first place, I was caught just two in-game days from intervening. Then a rather complicated series of moves takes place, which I'll explain below the image.
1: Trier's forces defeated my smaller forces (first battle of Vaud, lower left), then escaped to Bern.
2: Meanwhile I moved to Vaud, but Trier was gone. However in a series of moves not depicted in detail, I managed to make Savoy (darker red) attack Savoie, then reinforce it, defeating their army. (Battle of Savoie)
3: I pursued Savoy's forces into Vaud and white the morally depleted forces of Savoy (2nd battle of Vaud, upper right.)
Now Savoy were wiped out, but I still needed to deal with Trier. My chance came when I managed to make them attack a small split-off stack of mine in the mountains, where I came with reinforcements afterwards:
That battle was rather closer than I would like though, I almost lost all morale before making it there to reinforce it, and losses were equal.
And then joyous news arrived. It had turned out that all Ferrante II's own little musket needed, in order to face up to the task of performing its royal duties, was some good old-fashioned bloodshed! A son at the springy age of 50!
Woo, he is just about average (and yet still the 3rd best stat wise, as far as I can tell). Let us just hope he won't share the fate of the last 'Carlo' of house Borghese.
Soon after the birth of Carlo, Savoy was finally completely conquered, and gave into this peace in August 1677.
I did not intend to core those provinces, but rather hand them back once I vassalized Savoy in the next war.
That very same month, the last province of Serbia fell, and I managed to create an Ottoman enclave in the middle of Anatolia, hoping that some rebels would later make it break free.
The war with Trier itself was ended with a measly demand for 100 ducats.
Of course, Bavaria demanded "their" province back, but seeing as how they didn't even answer the call to defend their own imperial member, I saw little reason to take them seriously.
Then, I gleefully spent all my new money on finishing the production building lines in Rome, Venice and Liguria. I also got an event to bump up Patriarch authority to 50%, for the cheap price of them owning some of the richest land in the kingdom. One needs a vacation island or two to get some R&R after converting heathens after all.
When asked about why they insist on bringing so many choir boys, they answer that they are merely "Empowering the faith through integration of Catholic doctrine.”
During 1678, I forcefully annexed Adal. They were blocking the crossover between Ethiopia and were also quite an eyesore. To celebrate the victory, a bitchin' new Palace was built. You know, just to have a place a few dozen kilometers outside the city to retreat to, when life inside the Royal Palace of Naples got a bit too stressful.
I'll spare you the prolonged and glorious battles.
Seriously. Look that place up. The Palace of Caserta was a rival to Château de Versailles in the field of "Mad Decadence". It was also used in the first two terrible prequels to Star Wars.
Interestingly, Funj is a hotbed of constant rebellion.
Even after this victory, the admiralty of Naples had become concerned that Ferrante II would let the higher levels of the Neapolitan Navy's seamen pool be contaminated by lowborn genes. Ferrante II quickly dismissed such nonsense.
But he did prove somewhat lenient toward the city dwellers, as they complained that the laws requiring them to donate five standard size haystacks to the Crown to be a little misplaced and, frankly, excessive.
Two should be enough for any man!
France also realized its own Indian Ambitions, and this was not a fight I was quite up yet.
A fight that I however, was up for, was one against Bavaria. Not only had I been cheated out of it before, but pre-emptively striking them now would mean that they, along with all of their common allies, would be unable to defend Savoy once I declared it again. The war began in February 1680.
The wargoal was simple: Make Bavaria take back an imperial reform, before Great Britain or other allies of Bavaria could assist it.
The war plan was simple, with the same old 2x40 armies descending into Bavaria to occupy it long enough for 100% warscore. I began with a mad charge with a half-morale army (in my defense, theirs was no better).
While I laid siege to all of Bavaria, weary of reinforcements, I got myself a master of mint and en-acted this decision.
Unquestionably worth it, since reducing two points worth of inflation costs 75 admin points, I would just have to have any positive inflation for 50 years (and I will have).
In the fall of 1680 the entire Royal English Navy makes it into the Mediterranean, seemingly bent on revenge for the last time, this time they were packing enough firepower to utterly defeat me. Afterwards I made a point of staying away from open conflict with them and staying in port for the duration of the war. Embarrassing as it is, my seamen are much too precious to lose against such an enemy. My inability to defeat them is partially caused my heavy investment in light ships, and the fact that 90 of my ships were in the gulf of Aden/Indian Ocean.
Oh, I also got myself a new merchant and placed him in the Bengal node.
But other than killing 16k Lombardian patriots and another 10k counterattacking Brandenburgians, nothing much happened until this peace in August 1681.
I was almost a bit disappointed. Was this the best the HRE could dish up?
Meanwhile, I started the (slow) annexation of Yemen and sent my new colonist to the southernmost provinces of the Philippines - which would put me in range of the "Spice Islands" and Australia / New Zealand. If I can, I will make New Zealand and Australia into Neapolitan islands, though I am skeptical if Castile, France or Portugal won't try to take it away from me.
This time the natives won't be as welcoming (mostly because they exist), so I sent some troops later.
Then more good news arrived: Someone had figured out that if you trap enough dirty peasants inside a mine until they fill your quota, productivity increases!.
Manpower slowly decreases, however.
But it was soon time to go back on the warpath. Even the cartographers were making "mistakes" to nudge Ferrante II towards more war, before his age caught up with him.
I'm sure there's some contemporary geopolitical joke to be made here, but I'm not sure it would go over too well.
Armies were outfitted with the latest weapons and the biggest guns, and prepared for another war. But it would not be against Serbia.
For far too long had independent Savoy lingered on, reminding Naples that it had failed in its goal to unify the Italian cultures. That the great minestrone of Italian cultures and languages were too much for one nation to handle. That mama wouldn't approve of this Pizza, crowded with too many toppings. That this Neapolitan ragù couldn't possibly handle Savoyard Diot.
Simply put, that Naples was just an oversized piece of ricotta in the cannoli of the world.
Sorry, I lost focus there for a second. I think I'll dine Italian the next chance I get.
Back to the war plans. While the French king died, giving Naples a 4-year grace period, where France could not declare war upon Naples, War was declared on Savoy on 1st October 1682. Time to bring Savoy under the Neapolitan throne and finally take Görz, leaving the integration of Hungary the last remaining link to the Middle East.
Wargoals:
Primary:
- Vassalize Savoy.
- Annex Görz.
Secondary:
- Money.
80.000 Neapolitan and 30.000 Hungarian troops now stood ready to oppose.. Er, that's slightly more opponents than I had predicted.
TO BE CONTINUED.. in the second part coming in like an hour. You didn't expect me not to give you guys more after such a long wait, did ya?
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11. November 1674 - 1. January 1688 part 2/2
Okay. I was facing a rather large number of enemies compared to my own troops, since 3x20k troops were situated in India, Ethiopia and the Levant respectively. I could handle asymmetrical warfare!
My first move was to charge madly into Austria’s armies situated in Görz with my eastern army - now lead by Ferrante II himself. Meanwhile the western army fought the Savoyard troops, then split between laying siege to Savoy and attacking the coming Palatinate forces in Breisgau.
Hungary would (hopefully) keep Lithuania at bay, which meant that my eastern front could proceed. However, the western front was likely to meet strong opposition, and when two strong counterattacks came in the start of 1383 (first Trier, then Netherlands), Naples' forces retreated from the forward position in Breisgau to the Ring of Ice in the Alps. This could form a strong defensive line from attacks in the west.
Meanwhile Neapolitan forces had spread out to siege large chunks of eastern Austria, including Wien, in the hopes that I could soon make a separate peace with Austria, since I could not demand Görz along with vassalage from Savoy alone. To re-enforce the battle effort, I abandoned my forces in the Levant and marched them north. Mercenaries were also hired en massé to replace the lost troops in the Alps, as they were soon targeted again by Trier while Lithuania had broken Hungary in the east - and was descending upon me.
I lost sight of the Hungarian troops until they popped up again in Northern Italy. Dammit, Hungary.
By October 1683, pressure on the western front was intensified by both Savoy and the Netherlands, but Neapolitan forces were soon aided by fresh troops finally arriving from the Levant. Savoy attacked, and the Netherlands used my overreaction to that to hit a soft spot in my unit placements.
25k troops, a fourth of my entire active army in the area, wiped out in an instant! Troops from the western fronts were quickly united with the eastern front to re-enforce it. Meanwhile, Ferrante II had a hard time explaining just why wiping out the 1k Austrian stack in Görz had been so much more important.
”They seemed much more numerous when we were pillaging their corpses and looting their towns.. I mean liberating their people! Ah, damn.”
Now, at this time, the last province of Savoy fell, and the sensible thing at this point would probably have been to call it quits for now and leave Görz for another day. This was turning into a bloody battle of attrition and was not necessarily going in my favor. However, I was falling prey to the sunken cost fallacy and was convinced that once I sieged a few more provinces and convinced Lithuania to drop participation in the war, I could demand Görz from Austria, since a lot of their refusal relied on the alliance power.
It seemed less hopelessly optimistic at the time.
In January 1684 tensions rose again on the western front. Not only did I once again send too many troops away because of it, Lithuania and Austria took advantage and took out my very important siege of Wien - Which was almost certainly needed to get enough warscore to make Austria relent Görz.
And what is with those losses in the mountains?
I quickly sent large a number of forces east to deal with the new threat while also having to dedicate troops to destroy Savoyard revolts before they managed to win their siege.
The navy picked now of all times to complain about low quality. Now was the army's time to shine, what danger could the navy possibly be in!?
That was the only naval battle of this war, and consisted of the Netherlands sneaking into the Mediterranean, killing a small trade navy, then getting the hell out of dodge.
Meanwhile, in the summer of 1684, this seemingly endless war entered a new tense standoff in the Andes Mountains, as Lithuania once again found its way in.
Moreover, it just kept on going with a Dutch followed by an Austrian attack in early 1685. Oh, and more revolts.
But they would still not surrender that damned province! Any normally functioning human being would have thrown in the towel and waited for a better time to fight for Görz. But not Ferrante II. This was personal, and the Austrians were being damn obtuse about this entire mess!
They came again in the summer of 1685, and once again, the mountains of Graubünden were painted with the blood of the fallen thousands.
Then after handling that attack, another Lithuanian superstack came from the east. Then for some rather elusive reason, they decided to split their attack.
I was getting really bloody tired of the war at this point and the manpower reserves of Naples had become completely depleted - from now on, every loss was unlikely to be replaced. I needed to finish sieging Wien and end this war now if I wanted Görz. And yes, it goes without saying that I should have just accepted making Savoy a vassal a long time ago and ended the war without Görz.
The peasants at home were at least as supportive of this great war as they could be.
I mean, they could be actively rebelling, but instead they just chose to be passive aggressive.
In early 1686, the war continued with a refreshed Austrian offensive.
That was... an utter disaster. First, I didn't manage to reinforce the battle in time. Then, I won a purely moral "victory" that just forced the enemy to retreat. However, Lithuania seemed like it would soon accept a concede defeat by Naples (I had no contracts to offer breaking for them, nor were they interested in cash.) If I could get them to bow out, all of this would not have been for nothing!
In the fall of 1686 the chance to deliver the killing blow to Austria arrived, as they returned with their armies I almost lured them into attacking Steiermark (a mountain province), when my dear ally Hungary convinced them otherwise.
A victory grasped from nothing! It seemed like now I could certainly win by buying Lithuania out in just a couple of months and...
Okay then. In case you're wondering what the hell my desperate plan was, I knew from experience that Lithuania's forces sucked quite a lot (3 techs levels below me, eastern units, lower quality ideas). Therefore, I planning to make a stand in the mountains of Stiermark with a smaller army, while the larger one took out Lithuania, then make a united stand against Austria in the mountains. I was defeating the Lithuanians, until Austria quickly decimated the defenses of Stiermark and joined the fray.
By any means, I had lost. There was no way I could pull my overseas 40k troops home in time and no way could I afford enough mercenaries to deal with this.
I could, however, cheese my way out of it. The war had done little to the reason that I had not simply ended it yet: Lithuania was sick and tired of this war too. But that's not what shocked me the most.
Holy Orthodox Christ. I thought buying Lithuania out would not be nearly enough, and I would have to go on for months and months with my newly scrambled-together mercenary army, before Austria would surrender Görz.
I finished my business with Savoy in April 1687.
Afterwards I built a huge monument to celebrate the unification of Italy under Borghese suzerainty and got religious ideas number six, giving extra prestige. Naples may have extended the war for years and years to gain a rather insignificant province. Its army was decimated, the populace fuming and the entire country drained. But.
Hell, Naples now has so many prestige bonuses (6) that it will always trend towards 100, no matter what.
This war, despite the highly pyrrhic nature of it, actually made me happy. Naples was strong, but Austria was not a pushover just yet and there were other great powers out there still - France, Muscovy, England (for their navy if nothing else) and Castile/Portugal still represented threats to Naples.
If one were to calculate how many of the soldiers who joined in one of the starting armies were not dead, nor replaced by manpower reserves, one would get a pretty grim result.
When the sore-assed emperor came to ask for the Illegal HRE territory back, I did the sensible thing and gave it to a HRE nation, just as he had demanded.
Yes, it worked. The province had no modifiers when it came into Savoyard hands.
I also decided that Graubünden needed a slight rename following the endless battles that had happened there.
"The Red Mountains" according to my good, Italian buddy, Goog Letrans Late.
As the last act of this session, King Ferrante II names himself Absolutely Unrestricted Despot of all Naples. Officially, because he's just so awesome that everyone bent to his will following the war. Unofficially, because anyone who could oppose him was now dead because of it.
King undisputed, respected, saluted / and finally seen for the wonder he is.
My next plan was an attack on France, but seeing as how Naples only has a third of its original Italian/Greek armies and the only thing keeping France from jumping Naples right now, is that it is involved in what can best be described as an orgy of war for no good reason:
It's siding against England in England's conquest of some Aragonese land.
I think Naples just may need a small break for a couple of years or to pick a more approachable target. Maybe Brunei for a "pre-emptive" strike on its important centers of trade.
News of the World
- The Mongol Khanate has wiped Manchu off the Map.
- Japan (at war with the Manchu Khanate and losing their mainland provinces it seems) has westernized! So has Morocco for that matter.
- The Netherlands have established a colony in Beja California.
- The HRE seems to be tired of their ineffective emperor, and Austria now holds the majority despite 5/8 electors being catholic!
Arbritary quiz
Results:
Kiddo3: +5 for getting the precise number of skill points right!
DensleyBlair: +3 for hitting the mark.
BogMod: +2 for specifying mid-level, but not dynasty.
New question:
What will be the location of Naples' next colony?
Okay. I was facing a rather large number of enemies compared to my own troops, since 3x20k troops were situated in India, Ethiopia and the Levant respectively. I could handle asymmetrical warfare!
My first move was to charge madly into Austria’s armies situated in Görz with my eastern army - now lead by Ferrante II himself. Meanwhile the western army fought the Savoyard troops, then split between laying siege to Savoy and attacking the coming Palatinate forces in Breisgau.
Hungary would (hopefully) keep Lithuania at bay, which meant that my eastern front could proceed. However, the western front was likely to meet strong opposition, and when two strong counterattacks came in the start of 1383 (first Trier, then Netherlands), Naples' forces retreated from the forward position in Breisgau to the Ring of Ice in the Alps. This could form a strong defensive line from attacks in the west.
Meanwhile Neapolitan forces had spread out to siege large chunks of eastern Austria, including Wien, in the hopes that I could soon make a separate peace with Austria, since I could not demand Görz along with vassalage from Savoy alone. To re-enforce the battle effort, I abandoned my forces in the Levant and marched them north. Mercenaries were also hired en massé to replace the lost troops in the Alps, as they were soon targeted again by Trier while Lithuania had broken Hungary in the east - and was descending upon me.
I lost sight of the Hungarian troops until they popped up again in Northern Italy. Dammit, Hungary.
By October 1683, pressure on the western front was intensified by both Savoy and the Netherlands, but Neapolitan forces were soon aided by fresh troops finally arriving from the Levant. Savoy attacked, and the Netherlands used my overreaction to that to hit a soft spot in my unit placements.
25k troops, a fourth of my entire active army in the area, wiped out in an instant! Troops from the western fronts were quickly united with the eastern front to re-enforce it. Meanwhile, Ferrante II had a hard time explaining just why wiping out the 1k Austrian stack in Görz had been so much more important.
”They seemed much more numerous when we were pillaging their corpses and looting their towns.. I mean liberating their people! Ah, damn.”
Now, at this time, the last province of Savoy fell, and the sensible thing at this point would probably have been to call it quits for now and leave Görz for another day. This was turning into a bloody battle of attrition and was not necessarily going in my favor. However, I was falling prey to the sunken cost fallacy and was convinced that once I sieged a few more provinces and convinced Lithuania to drop participation in the war, I could demand Görz from Austria, since a lot of their refusal relied on the alliance power.
It seemed less hopelessly optimistic at the time.
In January 1684 tensions rose again on the western front. Not only did I once again send too many troops away because of it, Lithuania and Austria took advantage and took out my very important siege of Wien - Which was almost certainly needed to get enough warscore to make Austria relent Görz.
And what is with those losses in the mountains?
I quickly sent large a number of forces east to deal with the new threat while also having to dedicate troops to destroy Savoyard revolts before they managed to win their siege.
The navy picked now of all times to complain about low quality. Now was the army's time to shine, what danger could the navy possibly be in!?
That was the only naval battle of this war, and consisted of the Netherlands sneaking into the Mediterranean, killing a small trade navy, then getting the hell out of dodge.
Meanwhile, in the summer of 1684, this seemingly endless war entered a new tense standoff in the Andes Mountains, as Lithuania once again found its way in.
Moreover, it just kept on going with a Dutch followed by an Austrian attack in early 1685. Oh, and more revolts.
But they would still not surrender that damned province! Any normally functioning human being would have thrown in the towel and waited for a better time to fight for Görz. But not Ferrante II. This was personal, and the Austrians were being damn obtuse about this entire mess!
They came again in the summer of 1685, and once again, the mountains of Graubünden were painted with the blood of the fallen thousands.
Then after handling that attack, another Lithuanian superstack came from the east. Then for some rather elusive reason, they decided to split their attack.
I was getting really bloody tired of the war at this point and the manpower reserves of Naples had become completely depleted - from now on, every loss was unlikely to be replaced. I needed to finish sieging Wien and end this war now if I wanted Görz. And yes, it goes without saying that I should have just accepted making Savoy a vassal a long time ago and ended the war without Görz.
The peasants at home were at least as supportive of this great war as they could be.
I mean, they could be actively rebelling, but instead they just chose to be passive aggressive.
In early 1686, the war continued with a refreshed Austrian offensive.
That was... an utter disaster. First, I didn't manage to reinforce the battle in time. Then, I won a purely moral "victory" that just forced the enemy to retreat. However, Lithuania seemed like it would soon accept a concede defeat by Naples (I had no contracts to offer breaking for them, nor were they interested in cash.) If I could get them to bow out, all of this would not have been for nothing!
In the fall of 1686 the chance to deliver the killing blow to Austria arrived, as they returned with their armies I almost lured them into attacking Steiermark (a mountain province), when my dear ally Hungary convinced them otherwise.
A victory grasped from nothing! It seemed like now I could certainly win by buying Lithuania out in just a couple of months and...
Okay then. In case you're wondering what the hell my desperate plan was, I knew from experience that Lithuania's forces sucked quite a lot (3 techs levels below me, eastern units, lower quality ideas). Therefore, I planning to make a stand in the mountains of Stiermark with a smaller army, while the larger one took out Lithuania, then make a united stand against Austria in the mountains. I was defeating the Lithuanians, until Austria quickly decimated the defenses of Stiermark and joined the fray.
By any means, I had lost. There was no way I could pull my overseas 40k troops home in time and no way could I afford enough mercenaries to deal with this.
I could, however, cheese my way out of it. The war had done little to the reason that I had not simply ended it yet: Lithuania was sick and tired of this war too. But that's not what shocked me the most.
Holy Orthodox Christ. I thought buying Lithuania out would not be nearly enough, and I would have to go on for months and months with my newly scrambled-together mercenary army, before Austria would surrender Görz.
I finished my business with Savoy in April 1687.
Afterwards I built a huge monument to celebrate the unification of Italy under Borghese suzerainty and got religious ideas number six, giving extra prestige. Naples may have extended the war for years and years to gain a rather insignificant province. Its army was decimated, the populace fuming and the entire country drained. But.
Hell, Naples now has so many prestige bonuses (6) that it will always trend towards 100, no matter what.
This war, despite the highly pyrrhic nature of it, actually made me happy. Naples was strong, but Austria was not a pushover just yet and there were other great powers out there still - France, Muscovy, England (for their navy if nothing else) and Castile/Portugal still represented threats to Naples.
If one were to calculate how many of the soldiers who joined in one of the starting armies were not dead, nor replaced by manpower reserves, one would get a pretty grim result.
When the sore-assed emperor came to ask for the Illegal HRE territory back, I did the sensible thing and gave it to a HRE nation, just as he had demanded.
Yes, it worked. The province had no modifiers when it came into Savoyard hands.
I also decided that Graubünden needed a slight rename following the endless battles that had happened there.
"The Red Mountains" according to my good, Italian buddy, Goog Letrans Late.
As the last act of this session, King Ferrante II names himself Absolutely Unrestricted Despot of all Naples. Officially, because he's just so awesome that everyone bent to his will following the war. Unofficially, because anyone who could oppose him was now dead because of it.
King undisputed, respected, saluted / and finally seen for the wonder he is.
My next plan was an attack on France, but seeing as how Naples only has a third of its original Italian/Greek armies and the only thing keeping France from jumping Naples right now, is that it is involved in what can best be described as an orgy of war for no good reason:
It's siding against England in England's conquest of some Aragonese land.
I think Naples just may need a small break for a couple of years or to pick a more approachable target. Maybe Brunei for a "pre-emptive" strike on its important centers of trade.
News of the World
- The Mongol Khanate has wiped Manchu off the Map.
- Japan (at war with the Manchu Khanate and losing their mainland provinces it seems) has westernized! So has Morocco for that matter.
- The Netherlands have established a colony in Beja California.
- The HRE seems to be tired of their ineffective emperor, and Austria now holds the majority despite 5/8 electors being catholic!
Arbritary quiz
Results:
Kiddo3: +5 for getting the precise number of skill points right!
DensleyBlair: +3 for hitting the mark.
BogMod: +2 for specifying mid-level, but not dynasty.
New question:
What will be the location of Naples' next colony?
As to why you seem to be taking even casualties even with mountain penalty, what's your army tradition? Should be pretty easy to keep it at 100 at your state (start pointless wars in Asia). At 100 + offensive fire/shock bonuses I would expect to roll 4/4 generals as baseline, with a decent amount of 5/5+. I suggest building at least the war college, its essentially an extra military point / month for the rest of the campaign as its very nice to have more generals to shift around as needed.
Defending Graubunden against the hordes of evil is certainly something I can relate to (my most memorable battle is in that province!), and you certainly made nice use of your limited armies. I'm not sure whether you already do this, but mountain battles tend to last long enough where you can continuously raise mercenaries and throw them directly into the meat grinder as needed, so you can conserve precious manpower.
Defending Graubunden against the hordes of evil is certainly something I can relate to (my most memorable battle is in that province!), and you certainly made nice use of your limited armies. I'm not sure whether you already do this, but mountain battles tend to last long enough where you can continuously raise mercenaries and throw them directly into the meat grinder as needed, so you can conserve precious manpower.
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You'll settle in the island right below the Philippines, right above the green colored nation (I think it is Makassar but I'm unsure)
Well that went better than expected. Unlike my prediction for your next colony, one of those asian island thingies, ma doobi wazzers... shut up, don't judge me. I predict native uprising that destroy your colony over and over again because you get yourself into another northern war. Also if i mya suggest you sould really colonize those southern asian islands and get into a big war with savoy and austria and sink ALL of your boats so that you can't get troops to your colonies FOR NO REASON JUST BECAUSE:mellow:...so yeah...do that thing.
Also good work and stuff and appreciation for your hard work and toil and time and yeah.
More points! Hooray!
I'm guessing your next colony will be in the Spice Islands somewhere.
In any case, wonderful to see Italian unification (in spirit, anyway – I forget: did you decide you would form Italy or not?) grows nearer. Savoy will make a nice little vassal, I imagine.
I'm guessing your next colony will be in the Spice Islands somewhere.
In any case, wonderful to see Italian unification (in spirit, anyway – I forget: did you decide you would form Italy or not?) grows nearer. Savoy will make a nice little vassal, I imagine.
Please, do not form Italy! You're an orthodox power, with seven sicilian provinces. Move your capital to Athens, culture shift to greek and form byzantium the very moment you annex ottomans. You'll gain cores on the whole Anatolia, plus greece and bulgaria, iirc, and also the uber +3% missionary strenght from byzantine ideas. An unique let's play, for sure! You could also reenstablish the pentarchy. I only had success in Italy, in my game ottomans were too strong to face without fearing an invasion from rival France. Only had Ragusa and Tarvunia in the balkans.
If you decide to do this I'm completely down with it. Did you hear that? That was the sound of the true romans crying out to YOU for freedom from these sunni scum, free to be ORTHODOX! YEAH! BYAZANTIUM! FUCK YEAH! COMIN' AGAIN TO BE SUPER COOL ROMANS! BYZANTIUM! FUCK YEAH! WORLD CONQUEST IS THE ONLY WAY YEAH! OTTOMANS YOUR DAY IS THROUGH! CAUSE NOW YOU HAVE TO ANSWER TO... No more, I have made my point.